Memories of Alhambra: Episode 1 Live Recap

Wow, it was a busy weekend! Did you hang out with us during our Alhambra YouTube meetup? If you did, it was so fun to have you there! We were able to chat and chuckle through a few technical difficulties while watching the premier of Memories of Alhambra together. And boy was it worth the wait! Y’all, this show is amazing.

We posted both live recaps on our Patreon page this weekend. So if you are up at 6am CST on a Saturday, feel free to join us! Of course we would accidentally sleep in about 15 minutes on Sunday and have to scramble, but we managed to pull it all together in the end! Both recaps are up on Patreon and we also posted the Character descriptions of all the character over there as well. We will release those over here on Drama Milk throughout the week!

How we do this: We update the post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, there might be lovely updates at the bottom, so check back in!

KOREAN DRAMA MEMORIES OF ALHAMBRA RECAP EPISODE 1
OPENING
We open in Spain to a lot of shots of the city of Barcelona. We know it is Barcelona because they show up in huge gorgeous type font on the screen. The camera keeps scrolling to different scenes of the city until it settles on a guy on a phone.

VO – I saw the news article that you are coming to Barcelona…I just sent you a newsletter, please check it. I do not want to sell it to that person and I have to decide tomorrow. Please check your email.

He sounds nervous as he talks on this public phone and then looks off in a direction. He sees someone and looks startled.

VO – Please meet at Bonita hostel in Granada!

He gets off the phone in a hurry and runs through the streets of Barcelo, looking over his back every few feet as he runs away. The music pounds as Sejoo runs into a train station and quickly crosses to another room. The camera cuts to the time, 11:37.

Back on the street, the person on the other line is still there. Hello? Hello?

But Sejoo is running to catch a train, frantically and finally makes it on. he breathes a sigh of relief as the train pulls off and then heads to find a seat. We see him searching around for his room on this over night train, he gets to it and opens the door to see 3 other men in their bunks. They look harmless.

One of them asks him where he is going, he says Granada. The foreigner says great, I am going there too, can you wake me up if I fall asleep? Sejoo kind of nods yes, but he does not look like he is really paying attention. He is still breathing hard and sweaty.

Time passes on the train. they show us outside images of it traveling through the country side like the Hogwarts Express and inside images of Sejoo and his roommates passing time in their respective bunks.

Morning comes and the intercom says that they are in Granada. Sejoo lets the other foreigner know that they are in Granada and then starts to get his things ready. But a storm breaks out outside. It is raining and lightening. Sejoo looks a bit concerned. Then there is a gunshot through his window, blood splatters.

GRANADA
The train shows up at the station at 8am. Everyone starts to get out. The foreigner wakes up and we see him from the window, nothing is broken and there is no blood. The foreigner wonders why the Korean guy left his bag there. But he leaves as well.

VO – This is the last footage of him that was known publicly.

Cut to the Hostel in Granada. Hee-joo is sleeping on the couch as the news is on. It looks like the tv might be talking about Yoo Jin-woo. Sh wakes up and we get a bit more information about her and the hostel through all the things that are around. It looks like this is a hostel that caters to Koreans. It is Bonita hostel.

Someone rings the bell so Hee-joo comes out and asks who is there. It is Jin-woo. He smiles and asks her if she has a room.

VO – The story starts here, he is looking for me and I am looking for him. We are coming to Granada.

Jin-woo goes inside and asks if he woke her up. She smiles pleasantly and says no then has a bit of small talk about his airplane arriving early. She checks his reservation, it looks like he did not make one so he tells her that he did not plan on coming there. He is also not sure on how many days he will stay there. Perhaps tonight only?

She says okay and tells him that they have a 4 people dorm and a 2 people dorm. She tells him that prices and says that breakfast is included. But he asks for a single room, isn’t there one? There isn’t one? She tells him that people looking for single rooms go to hotels. He looks so shocked. But she tells him that they do have a single room on the 6th floor.

He tells her that he will take it. But he has to walk all the way up the 6 floors, there is no elevator. He looks up the winding staircase in awe. Hee-joo says that it is an old building so there are no elevators, but she can book a room for him at a hotel. He tells her n, he will stay there. He asks about the dormitory again, but upon inspection it looks really dirty because it has college kids in it. He tells her that he will use the 6th floor.

Flash to his expensive watch.

He starts to take his luggage up to the 6th floor, but it is a chore. he must have bricks in it because it looks like he is struggling to get it up the steps. He finally gets it to the 6th floor, huffing and puffing, and then painfully rolls it to the room. She looks at him as if he is strange, but in a nice way, and asks if he really likes his luggage.

He says he does because there are weapons inside, but then he says he is just joking, he carried it that way because he did not want it to have any scratches. She opens the door to him and apologizes for not cleaning it yesterday. But this room looks like it has months of dirt pilled up so he asks if it was only not yesterday? She makes an excuse that the room is always empty so she forgets to check it.

She tries to open the window, but it does not open. She looks back, slightly embarrassed, and tries to open it again. However, she hesitantly goes back to him and asks if he can just go to another hotel, it should be difficult for you to go up and down.

He is all like, with this luggage? I don’t think so. You must want me to die. She smiles politely.

Cut to her walking back down the stairs. HJ’s grandmother is right there and asks her about this guy that wants to stay there. They wonder why rich people want to stay there, perhaps all his rich looking things are all fake? But they don’t think too much more about it and decide to go to sleep.

Jin-woo gets settled in his room. He tries to clean it and is horrified at how dirty it actually is. When he tries to open the window, it breaks and to make matters worse, a rat come scuttering out from under somewhere. It scutters away to another hole. Jin-woo tries to cover the hole with balled up tissue to keep the rat out. it is a big heavy job. Then he starts cleaning some more.

But there is no trashcan to he tries to flush the paper. However the toilet gets backed up and the water is all grey to begin with. he inspects it and sees a sign written in Korean.

Sign: The water pressure is super duper low here so be careful with your bathroom tissue. If it does not work then you will have to use the 1st floor bathroom.

Jin-woo shrugs.

Scene change to Jin-woo’s secretary, JH, who is back in their expensive hotel or maybe their office? He is looking for the CEO. it looks like JW left without letting anyone know so he calls him and asks where he is at. Jin-woo answers right away, he is currently using the plunger in the bathroom. JH is all like, what? Where is that? Southern Spain? Without notice? We go to Seoul tomorrow. I am so surprised.

Jin-woo tells him that he is more surprised. He woke up and had to come to Granada, he tried to wake up his drunk secretary but he did not wake up because he was so drunk and cursed me out because I was waking up a sleeping person so I bought the airplane ticket by myself and came here by myself because my F’ing secretary did not do anything. Does that make any sense?

The secretary looks like he got his foot stuck in his mouth. Jin-woo tells him to prepare his letter of resignation. JH asks if it is a joke? I hope it is a joke. Jin-woo smiles and says it is not a joke. JH is all like…..*blank*…..wahhhh. But then Jin-woo calls again and tells him to go to Granada on the next airplane. they can talk about it when he comes.

JH stands up and says Yes boss! Then he relaxes on the couch and wonders why Jin-woo went to Granda.

In Granada, Jin-woo plunges the daylights out of that toilet and finally gets it to flush. After a job well done, he takes a break on the bed and checks his phone. t is 1:52am Spain and 8:52am Korea. He only has 4% battery so he quickly get his charger, but the plug does not work. I tell you, his day is not going well here.

He looks around at all the charge locations in the room, they all look like they do not work. So he has to walk all the way back down the stairs to charge his phone. he mutters all the way down, do they want to kill me? He gets to the lounging area muttering, do they want me to close this place?

Then he checked his phone, the secretary left a message saying, “30 more minutes”.

A girl comes out with headphones on. Jin-woo asks who she is, she says that she is Min-joo. The owner is her sister but Jin-woo asks if she is her mom. MJ thinks that is daebak, you think she is my mom? He smiles and says not to tell her aunt. Then she tells him that she will start dancing because she has an audition so don’t get mad.

She starts dancing feely and wildly while Jin-woo tries to eat. But her hair flicks him and she bumps him so often that it looks hard to eat. He puts his dirty dishes in the sink and is about to leave so Min-joo tells him that he has to clean it. You cannot leave. Jin-woo reluctantly goes back and starts cleaning the dishes, annoyed.

But then he gets a text saying that something is ready, please check it. Jin-woo smiles and heads out right away.

VO – Most people come to Granada to see Alhambra palace.

he starts walking up the alley, the camera follows him as he walks everywhere. It looks like he walks for a fair bit of time through the city.

He gets to a busy street and keeps walking.

VO – But I came here to see something else. Something more mysterious than Alhambra palace.

he keeps walking until he is on a huge empty street, there is nothing around but cobblestone and buildings. he walks all the way to a fountain and looks at it interestingly. But then he turns around and looks around to see if there is anything else.

Suddenly the castle set fire on the hill. A meteor shoots from it and knocks into a building shooting bricks everywhere. Jin-woo crouches to protect himself from it. Then he looks at the pieces of the building that are on the ground and is about to touch one of them. But he hears a horse. He looks up hesitantly and sees a Knight on horseback. It is a striking sight so he stands, his fingers grace the rock.

The knight on horseback rides all the way to Jin-woo, he has arrows stuck in his back as if he was just in battle. Jin-woo looks lost for words as he looks at this knight in armor.

The horse startles and bucks the knight off of his back, then it gallops away. Jin-woo is left looking at the knight laying on the ground, not moving. He walks around him, inspecting his armor and his overall look, stunned.

VO – Magic, I came all the way here to see this magic.

he turns and looks at the statue. There is a knight on the top. He jumps off and then turns human and chops the street in front Jin-woo. He hops back as the ground chatters to the statue knights blow. In his hands is a huge sword. he pulls his sword up and slices Jin-woo with it. Blood plashes everywhere.

His contacts turn on.

Contacts: you had a critical attack -100. You are killed by the Night of Nasar.

Jin-woo looks on in stunned amazement. What in the world just happened. Suddenly everything starts to go away and the street turns back to normal. In his ear is someone talking.

VO – What is this?
JW – Did you see that?
VO – Yes, it is the best A/I ever! I cannot distinguish it from reality!

Jin-woo was talking to Yang-joo this entire time, not the secretary. Yang-joo asks him how he felt? Jin-woo says that it happened so quickly, but I really felt like I was dying.

Yang-joo hops up and looks like he really wants to play it! Why did he made the demo in Granada?

Jin-woo takes out the contact and looks at it. They start to say how their smart lens might not be able to support this game. And it might take one year for it to be public. Do you really think he made it all himself? It is so great. He can either be a genius or a crazy guy or both. Who is this guy? I really want to know.

BARCELONA – 4 HOURS AGO
Jin-woo wakes up to the ringing of his phone, but he looks pretty out of it. Se-joo is on the other side of the phone and ask if this is Yoo Jin-woo? This is the phone call he made at the beginning of the show. he says that he went to Cha Hyung-seok and he offered him 10 million dollars. That is good, but he is a bad guy so I don’t want to take the deal. I actually wanted to call you first. I saw the news article that you are coming to Barcelona.

JW – Wait, I don’t understand, how did you know I was here and my number?
SJ – I sent you an email, please read it.
JW – You sent me an email?
SJ – I don’t want to sell it to him but I have to make a decision tomorrow. I will see you at Granada Hostel.
JW – Wait, are you a programer? Can you talk calmly? What is you name? Hello? Hello?

But SJ is long gone and Jin-woo cannot call that number. that phone does not accept calls. Jin-woo thinks of going back to sleep but then he remembers that SJ told him Cha Hyung-seok offered him 10 million dollars. that is a lot of money but he did not want to take the deal because he is a bad guy. Jin-woo opens his mail. It looks like the name of the game is “Memories of Alhambra”

Jin-woo checks it all out on his computer and says, “What the F?” he calls A.

Someone answers and says, “Yes, CEO”. he looks a bit stealth and undercover, almost like a secret agent. Jin-woo tells him that it is nice to talk to him again and asks if Hyung-seok is still in Barcelona. The man says, CEO cha? I don’t know, his formal schedule finished a few days ago.

But it looks like there is a man in a car outside listening to the phone.

Jin-woo asks this guy to find out everything that HS did while he was here and to look for a male programer. I only has his email address and he met Hyung-seok in Barcelona. The man asks if it is important? JW says It sounds like 90 billion dollars based on his estimate. Please move quickly. Hyung-seok might take the deal. But he is going to Granada because he has to see the deal himself.

But that entire scene was his memory. We cut back to the present where Jin-woo is still on the ground. He puts the contact lens back in and stands up as he talks to his friend. it is late so he thinks they can level up int he morning and continue more. They could stumble onto something.

Yang-joo agrees and then see Executive Sun-ho coming in. He tells Jin-woo. JW tells YJ to explain everything to him, it is only secret the three of us. Sun-oh gets to Yang-joo and asks if the CEO went to Granada? YJ starts to explain the A/R game and shows it to him. He has to see it, all other A/R games are trash.

In Granada, Jin-woo activates the game again. it is his second log in.

Caption: Welcome to 1492 Granada….there is a big war going on between Nasal Kingdom and Aragon Kingdom in Granada.

A screen pops up.

Caption – There are no allies or enemies, you need to survive and be reborn as a warrior….you will get gold coins after finishing the quest…..quests are hidden in the places in town….*details of locations*….no weapons, you need to find them….level one has a basic weapon, find the weapon.

Level 1 – Zinu, Attack: 31 and Defense: 51

A map pops up and shows that he needs to go 230 meters. Jin-woo walks off on a mission. Everywhere he walks, we see an arrow show up that shows him exactly where to walk as if it appears on the street. It shows him updated distance as he gets closer and sends him though a kitchen. His destination is around the corner toward the restaurant. One of the waiters tells him that they have a seat for him…but he can use the restroom first.

he gets to the restroom, which is his location, and he has to find the weapon. But he has no other clues. So he looks around and things and then pulls something. It moves. A secret room opens up above and a sword comes floating down. it is a rusty steal sword with endurance of 50.

A man is peeing in the background and does not notice this going on.

Jin-woo grabs the sword, it becomes real to him.

Caption: this is the only weapon that level one can use. if you want to upgrade your weapon then you have to upgrade your level.

In the offices, yang and Jung both think that this is so cool. Jin-woo starts moving the sword around and we get a shot of how it really looks in real life. He looks crazy.

he leaves the restaurant happily and tells the waiter that he will be back another time. The waiter thinks he is a crazy guy.

Jin-woo does not care and/or really notice and just walks amazed back to the statue where that knight was. his team talks to him in his ear.

the knight hops back off the statue and destroys the ground just like last time. It is epic. Jin-woo holds his knife and defends the first blow. The office thinks this is crazy, how is this so real. They all yell and tell him to move run! But Jin-woo get sliced again.

Caption You are dead from the knight of Aslal. Logging out.

Jin-woo sighs, but he says that he knows and is use to it now. One more time.

He gets up and closes his eyes for a minute in order to log in. The man hops off his statue and starts fighting. We see that Jin-woos life and experience has decreased a bit. They keep fighting and his sword breaks. he dies again.

the team in the office is so amazed like two middle school boys watching a video game. They starts to tell Jin-woo that he is too slow, haven’t you sword fought before? This will take more than a year to increase your level.

Jin-woo is all like, shut up. Then he logs in for the 4th time. But he does not have a weapon so he has to go back to the restaurant. he goes back and the waiter tell him, hey your back, we hav a table. But Jin-woo just goes to the bathroom, gets the sword, and goes back the spot.

He practices his swing a few times and then tells the man to come on out. But he dies several times.

Rinse as repeat as he does this several times. He goes back to the restaurant so many time, it is insane. maybe he did this dozens of times? he looks so tired and dies so many times. This is insane, no one would let him back into their restaurant that many times. But on the good side, the office says that there is a pattern. They tell him the pattern so Jin-woo starts to do it, but he still dies.

The office gets coffee and snacks as they keep watching Jin-woo try to defeat this game. It is an uphill battle y’all. I don’t see how anyone can get past this level.

Jin-woo starts fighting again. This time the knight jumps on a car and sends the car breaking and windows shattering everywhere. It looks insane.

Office – Did you see that? They are using real life objects!

Then Jin-woo dies again as he is sliced right through his gut. His sword breaks and he is dead. The office guys hang their heads in frustration. But Jin-woo looks so amazed that he can’t move.

he goes back to the restaurant but the waiter is all like, what is with this guy again? he tells him that they are closed, why do you ned to use this restroom, use another one. But Jin-woo gives him piles of cash and tells him that they should stay open just one more hour, okay?

He tries to beat this knight all night long. Morning comes and all the grandma’s and grandpa’s of the neighborhood start to come out to get their daily coffee and meal. They watch Jin-woo with interest.

Jin-woo has gotten better, he is able to cut the knight at least. That is a big improvement. then he finally moves up and slices the Knight as the knight jumps high in the air like he is flying. he kills him! Finally!

Screen:
Experience +30
Attack +5
Defense +5

LEVEL 2

Everyone is super happy! Jin-woo is so happy as well, he is so ridiculously happy. he walks up to the knight, but the knight disappears. On the screen it tell him that he has to get his bounty/reward.

The warriors key floats in the fountain. +30 for experience. Jin-woo picks it up and can now get another weapon since he is level two now and has a key.

Jin-woo collapses on the ground, thoroughly tired.

His team tells him there are no drawbacks of this game. The only drawback is that it is too addictive. If you let that other company get it…but Jin-woo just tell them that he is too tired to talk, let’s talk back in Korea.

VO – I see the future. All the people in the entire world will enjoy this amazing magic. Seoul, Bejing, New York, Paris and Granada will not be as called as the place with Alhabmra palace, it will be called the place with magic. this will be a holy grail for all the users in the world. The first location to gain popularity in this global franchise.

Jin-woo sits up, he has something in his hands. (the earpiece?).

VO – When I had that imagination, I was even depressed just in case I do not get it.

Cut to Hee-joo riding his scooter back to the hostel. Jin-woo gets home at the same time and tells him that she can clean his room first. he is all like, sounds good and then goes inside. He is so tired.

VO – He sent me the address of this hostel and told me to meet in Granada because he stays here often. Is he really going to show up here? Did he finish the deal with Hyung-seok?

Jin-woo gets to his room and rests a beat. But then he tries to plug in his phone. It frustratingly does not work so he has to go all the way back down the steps. he gets to the kitchen area, Kim Sang-beom is there and says he is sorry, he will be back he just has a stomach ache. he runs out.

Someone calls Jin-woo, it is the investigator looking guy, he tells JW that HS cancelled all his schedule even though he was busy. Jin-woo is worried, maybe he already made that deal? He man thinks he might not have. He found that guy and hacked his email. the most important thing is that the programmers name is Jung Sejoo, he is only 17.

Jin-woo is all like, only 17? But then the smoke alarm goes off due to the other persons food. Jin-woo turns it off and then goes out. Hee-joo runs in and asks what happened. JW tells her thta the smoke detector got triggered. HJ mutters that it is sensitive and then runs to the kitchen.

Outside, JW loses the connection a bit. Inside, HJ tries to stop the smoke detector. JW wants to change his location and take his phone out but he has to stay in the kitchen because he does not have a charge. He gets frustrated and yells at HJ to just stop the smoke detector. Hee-joo is all like, um, excuse me, I did not do this, you are the one that did this, I just walked up in here.

JW walks up to her (she is standing on the table) and basically tells her that he does not like lazy unprofessional people like her. How can you offer only ramen? He starts to curse a lot and says that he has to plunge his room all the time and there was a rat hole and the window does not open and the stairs are so high and there is no elevator (on and on) there is no proper charger, I have to come downstairs all the time. Look at yourself!

HJ looks at him, a bit scared, and tells him that she told him to go to another hotel….

He calms a bit and says that he was talking about a trillion dollar deal, this fire alarm went off, if I don’t get this deal then it is all your fault.

She is so nervous and flustered, but she wonders why it is her fault. She looks stunned that he is yelling at her. But she gets her bravery up and tells him that he has no manners. he chuckles and says it is kind of funny that she does not have manners to her customer.

She falls on the table and starts crying as he starts talking to his secret guy.

The secret guy says that Sejoo is still underage so the guardian has to sign for it. the guardian is his sister (the parents died), the sister runs a hostel in Granada….

Where?

Bonita hostel, I will send you the address.

Jin-woo looks around at the hostel…it is definitely the Bonita hospital

VO – If you are in Granada then go to that hospital first. I checked some mail that he exchanged with his noona, the noona does not know anything.

Jin-woo looks at Hee-joo crying in the kitchen. He done F’d up.

VO – is that so?

VO – Like this, the magic started in hee-joo’s life.

he tries to smile at her.

VO – Now Hee-joo has the rights to the core technology to change the world.

She looks at him like he is the devil.

VO – Of course, just as the princess in the storybooks is like, she does not even know who she is and is living in a dilapidated house. Then she opened the door to a wolf.

Fade Out

COMMENTS
Holy crap, this show is great. Also, that restaurant is very nice to let Jin-woo walk in dozens of times to use their bathroom.

PREVIEW

JW – GOOD MORNING!
VO – It’s empty
VO – You got mad because I gave you good advice.
YS – When does the night train come?
HJ – 8 o’clock.
SH – How are things going?
JW – I don’t feel good about it.
HJ – Well, yeah, my house is dilapidated but I still have my conscience. Okay, I will give you your money back, goodbye.
JW – Wait wait wait!
VO – Cha Yung-seok, now.
JW – I thought I am the only one that knows about this game.
VO – There are no secrets in our field.
VO – If someone knows it, then I know it.
JW – Maybe he contacted Jin-woo also. Find out.
VO – Jung Sae-joo? Isn’t that JSJ, it should be JSJ
JW – Quiet, I have something to do.
HJ – DO you want to stay here longer?
JW – The more I want, the more I will definitely take it.

3 Comments

Rose

December 3, 2018 / 6:51 am

Its nice doing live chat with you guys. And thanks for the recap too! Wish we can do live chat every week but i know its physically impossible because of the shcedules and other stuff we need to attend too. I did enjoyed this show. Hope it continues up until the the end. 😊

psst!

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